A Wilderness Explorer is a Friend to All: Big storms and cute kids

Everything is going great as usual! After almost a week of no rain, we got some really huge day-long storms. Most haven't been terrible, just very wet, but one day while I was work we got hit with a big one. I was standing at the Flamingo Badge with a few guests and other Presenters. The rain kept getting heavier and heaver and the thunder started to get really loud... I'm pretty sure lightning struck just a few hundred yards away, it was the loudest thunder I've ever heard. Pretty scary, but as far as I know, no one was hurt.

I've been teaching some really cute kids recently, but here are some of the more memorable:

Real Life Russell: a boy who came to DAK dressed in a spot-on Russell costume. I was a little bit star-struck. It was apparently his Halloween costume from last year, and it was amazing.
Scared of Storms: a little girl who was with me at Tracking Badge and was starting to get scared when some dark clouds started rolling in. So I knelt down and asked her if she knew that Mickey Mouse worked here. She said yes so I asked her if Mickey was magic. She said yes again so I asked her, "If Mickey is here, and he has aaaall that magic, do you really think he'll let something happen to you if it storms?" And she said no, and I told her that she would be okay, and she seemed a little better. :)
Spider Girl: I think about this girl every day. She was probably 11-12 years old, and was with me at Insect Badge. I went through my whole spiel about how bugs are important, and even though spiders and kind of creepy crawly, it's important not to squish them because they have an important job to do. I have her and her siblings their badges and I expected her to walk away but she kept looking at the house spider we had on display. I asked her if she had anymore questions and she said something along the lines of: "I'm really afraid of spiders but I didn't know that they were important so I don't think I'm going to kill them anymore." And I was like, "You know what, I used to be afraid of them too, and I still think they're kind of creepy, but they are so cool!" She was smiling when she left so I think I changed her mind. I hope she can convince her friends to feel the same way!
The Jellyfish Girl: This girl taught me/tricked me with a hilarious jellyfish "handshake" that had me cracking up. I will try to record a video of it and post it.

In non-work news, I've turned my friends into Pin Trading addicts. It's awesome. We also went out for Indian food the other day, and it turns out I like Indian food! It's very similar to the food we had in Tanzania.

Now to end with some random pictures! Katherine and I went to visit the DAK animals we never get to see while working.